One of the biggest misconceptions photographers have when it comes to using Flash is that it can’t look natural. In reality, this couldn't be further from the truth.
To prove it, we’re going to walk you through, step-by-step, how to get your flash photography to look like you’re only using natural light. All you’ll need is a light stand, your off-camera flash, and the right lighting modifier for the job, which we’ll cover.
Here’s the gear you’ll need to practice the techniques covered in this video/article.
In case you’re not yet familiar with the C.A.M.P. Framework, or the sequence we follow when working through a portrait session, we discuss the acronym and its function in detail in this article. For your convenience, we’ll include a quick recap below.
Now that we know what the C.A.M.P. Framework is, let’s begin.
Let’s begin by taking a basic walk-up shot in which we don’t worry about composition.
The only elements from this photo that are working in our favor are the model and the sun, which is nicely backlighting the scene.
Unfortunately, we can also see too much of the road, passing cars, and even our model’s shoes, which we don’t want to focus on. Now, let’s consider our composition.
To fix the issues with the walk-up shot, we can simply lower the camera and shift our angle to frame the model between the trees in the background.
The plants/grass near the camera also give us a nice foreground element. With the composition set, we can then shift our focus to lighting.
Usually, when it comes to getting natural looks out of our flash, we mess up the second step of the C.A.M.P. Framework, which has to do with dialing in our ambient exposure.
For a natural light look, we typically want to keep our ambient light brighter in-camera and our flash power on the lower side. We would do the opposite if we were trying to create a dramatically lit image.
Of course, the modifier(s) we use for natural light-looking flash photography make a significant difference as well.
For this shot, natural light could work, but we can improve the lighting by adding a touch of light off to the side to accentuate the model’s face.
We can add or modify the light in a number of ways, using a reflector or flash. While reflectors make great lighting modifiers, they also have a couple of weaknesses.
They tend to make people squint, you need an assistant to hold them, and they’re not the best go-to when you're working in the shade. For those reasons, using flash really stands out as the best option.
Once you decide to create natural light portraits with flash, you’ll need to set up your lighting.
We’ve already established our composition, so the camera position is set. Now, just bring in the flash, place it on a stand, and position the flash at about a 45-degree angle off-camera.
We mentioned previously that too much flash power or too low of an ambient exposure can destroy the natural look you’re going for. Here’s an example of what we see with the flash at full power with no modifier used.
Whenever photographers say that flash can't look natural, this is what's happening. The dramatic
Lighting looks fine, but it’s not what we’re after. That said, we’re going to adjust our aperture once more to get a soft background (this really has to do with the first step - composition) and then adjust our other settings accordingly.
Now that we’ve added light, we can modify it. For a bit of diffusion, we’ll add the MagSphere 2. This particular modifier will allow the light to bounce around and minimize reflection or specular light.
Here’s what we get with the MagSphere added (see above). Next, we’ll take a step further in the natural light direction and bring our shutter speed down to 1/1000 and our flash power down another stop.
For the sake of comparison, and to see what the direction of light via flash adds to the portrait, here’s a shot without flash.
And finally, here’s a side-by-side comparison of three shots, including our standard exposure shot without flash, a standard exposure shot with flash, and a brighter exposure shot with flash.
The first image features standard exposure without flash. In the second image, we’ve added flash and kept the same exposure.
For the third image, the exposure is brighter and we’re also using flash.
The first shot feels a bit too flat and the third is a bit too bright.
That second shot, however, represents a nice balance between ambient light and flash power and yields a nice shot with a bit of light direction.
With everything dialed in, all that’s left is to direct your subject into different poses and capture more shots.
We hope you found this material helpful. Now, it’s your turn to put this technique into practice and show your clients and the world that flash photography can be used to create convincing natural light portraits, but with the added benefit of controlled light direction and more.
© 2026 MagMod
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)